You may be aware that Coach Crean is closely followed by national media and has had some difficult times. He shared with us how he deals with very public and mean-spirited attacks from people he knows or doesn't. It angers him at many levels, including the impact it has on his wife and children. As a public figure, this can steal a lot of energy. Here's the process that he uses:

He does not allow people to email him directly. There is one public email address that he sees after it's been sorted out if his team needs his help with it. It's likely most of us won't be able to implement this. However, you can implement a better prioritization of your attention on your email. We discuss strategies to manage time more effectively in our Realistic Project Management workshops.

Look at the agenda of the attack: what is the goal of the person attacking you? Learn the landscape. Focus on facts and challenge / rewrite your interpretations. How can this person see this as truth? How can this behavior be sane from his/her perspective?

If appropriate, find a way to acknowledge their goal in a non-confrontational way. Create an empathetic response if possible.

Challenge yourself to see your part in the attack and strive to learn from and do better next time if possible.

Each person has a choice between attack and forgiveness. You cannot make someone else's choice for them. A leader who does not receive criticism is not leading. In our Realistic Project Management live and online workshops, we share the following truth: " If you are working on a project where no one is bothering you and there's no stress, there are one of two things that are true- you're doing the project wrong or nobody needs this project."